Coronavirus: US will donate ventilators to India, Donald Trump says

With the addition of 44 deaths on Thursday, the Covid-19 toll in Maharashtra breached the 1,000 mark to reach 1,019. About 55% of the total deaths have come in the past 14 days of May alone. Maharashtra also added over 1,000 cases for the ninth day in a row. Thursday saw 1,602 new cases, the second highest single-day jump, taking the total tally to 27,524 cases.

A Supreme Court judge and his family were advised by health officials to undergo precautionary self-quarantine as one of his residential staff tested positive for Covid-19. Sources said the cook at the judge's residence, who has been on leave since May 7, was tested positive today after he was referred to a hospital following complaint of body ache and mild fever.

Since people are walking on the main road and there is less traffic due to lockdown, earmarking one lane as ‘vehicle free’ is feasible, an expert said. Piyush Tewari of SaveLife Foundation tweeted that according to their estimate, 308 people had died between March 24 and May 14 (Thursday) and 104 of them were migrants heading home.

The Bengal government has arranged for 105 special trains to bring back stranded people from around the country over the next one month, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday, adding that 32 of these trains will reach the state in the next seven days, carrying nearly 38,000 migrant workers, tourists and students. Railway officials estimate that these trains will ferry around 1.3 lakh people stuck in about 25 cities spread across 12 states. Over the next week, the highest number of trains will arrive from Maharashtra, followed by New Delhi and Kerala.

Air India is taking bookings for about 30 outbound flights — mainly from Delhi — for some destinations in the US, Canada, UK, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore and Australia. These flights will operate from May 17-28 as part of the Vande Bharat Mission-II to fly back Indians stranded abroad. Some countries are conditionally allowing people to fly from India on the flights going there to bring home stranded Indians.

The lockdown in Maharashtra will most likely be extended till May 31. It will be strictly implemented in the red zones, especially in Mumbai, Pune, Malegaon and Pimpri-Chinchwad, which have contributed the maximum number of Covid-19 cases so far. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday held a meeting with some of his cabinet colleagues to formalise the plan to be implemented after May 17, when Lockdown 3.0 ends. The plan is to be forwarded to PM Modi by Friday.

Indian Railways has started taking the destination address of all passengers booking train tickets from Wednesday, which can be helpful in contact tracing, if required later. This will be a permanent feature for rail travel as India gets ready for a long battle against Covid-19. The railway ministry has also announced that all tickets which were booked for normal trains before the lockdown for the travel period up to June 30 stand cancelled. There will be full refund of the ticket amount.

The first special train to Kerala from New Delhi reached Thiruvananthapuram Railway Station with 602 passengers on Friday.The passengers were screened after they reached the railway station.The air-conditioned Rajadhani superfast train is among the lockdown special superfast trains being operated from New Delhi to 15 destinations.On May 11, the Indian Railways had issued the timings of 30 special trains to be run with effect from May 12.

Despite White House claims, the US still lacks a comprehensive battle plan against the coronavirus in critical areas including masks, testing, treatments and vaccines, whistleblower Rick Bright warned Thursday in testimony before a House committee. "Our window of opportunity is closing," he declared.The nation could face "the darkest winter in modern history" if the virus rebounds, the government vaccine scientist told lawmakers. Bright's appearance came after his ouster last month as head of a Health and Human Services biodefense agency, an action he alleges was retaliation by the Trump administration."We need still a comprehensive plan, and everyone across the government and everyone in America needs to know what that plan is, and what role they play," he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "There are critical steps that we need to do to prepare ... we do not still have enough personal protective equipment to manage our health care workers ... we still do not have the supply chains ramped up for the drugs and vaccines, and we still don't have plans in place for how we distribute those drugs and vaccines. We still do not have a comprehensive testing strategy."

Global deaths linked to the novel coronavirus passed 300,000 on Thursday, while reported cases of the virus are approaching 4.5 million, according to a Reuters tally.About half of the fatalities have been reported by the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy.The first death linked to the disease was reported on January 10 in Wuhan, China. It took 91 days for the death toll to pass 100,000 and a further 16 days to reach 200,000, according to the Reuters tally of official reports from governments. It took 19 days to go from 200,000 to 300,000 deaths.By comparison, an estimated 400,000 people die annually from malaria, one of the world's most deadly infectious diseases.

While this was the fifth consecutive day of over 3,500 cases being added to the country’s Covid count, the growth rate of the infection has gradually decreased during this period. However, the infection continues to spiral in several states, led by Maharashtra, which again reported a huge surge in cases — 1,602. Read full story